CALLS have been made for Staffordshire to be considered a “special case” to help tackle a backlog in criminal court cases.
The plea to the Ministry of Justice came from Staffordshire Commissioner Ben Adams.
He said the county was facing one of the worst backlogs in the country for crown and magistrates court cases, meaning victims of crime are facing a lengthy wait for justice.
Former judge Sir Brian Leveson has made a number of recommendations to address the national backlog of criminal court cases.
Commissioner Adams, speaking at the latest Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting, said:
“I am going to be proposing that we now have to move into a different position to require the Ministry of Justice to consider us a special case.
“We are in the top two or three areas in the country for backlogs in both crown and magistrates courts when compared with pre-Covid.
“It’s having an impact on victims – it means they aren’t seeing justice done soon enough.
“Witnesses and victims are withdrawing support for prosecutions and the teams we commission to look after victims are holding three times as many open cases as they should do.
“To my view it is unacceptable and is impacting on our performance in terms of criminal justice.”
However, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said the crown court backlog in Staffordshire was broadly in keeping with the national average.
They added that the Government is funding a record 110,000 crown court sitting days this year.
Other measures to tackle the backlog and reduce waiting times include extended magistrates’ court sentencing powers from six to 12 months, greater use of remote hearing technology where appropriate and transferring cases between courts to smooth out operational pressures.
They said:
“We know that justice delayed is justice denied and it is clear that many cases are taking too long to reach trial.
“That’s why we’re backing our courts with record funding and are carefully considering Sir Brian Leveson’s bold and ambitious recommendations for reshaping the courts system to tackle delays and speed up justice for victims.”
